Alive

Chapter 6


Elena always thought she wasn't a coward. She had always tried to face the problems and the losses in her life holding her head up. It had been like that when she lost her parents, when she found out about what her boyfriend was and all the dangerous situations they had faced in the past year. She liked to think she was strong and resilient but losing the Salvatore brothers in the nearly future made her want to run. She knew the more time she spent with them the more attached she'd be. That was probably the only explanation for her feelings towards Damon. It was the time they passed together, the quality time when they did a lot of things together. She wasn't prepared to never listen to his sarcastic smirks and witty comments again. She had to step away now before her feelings for him made it impossible to survive living without him there.

Surely she'd have a bad time without Stefan too. But while she and Damon were growing closer, she and Stefan were breaking apart. She didn't know what had happened, maybe too much water under that bridge but slowly she felt like they were falling apart. Slowly her relationship with Stefan had become some thirty-year-old marriage while Damon became her best friend. He was closer to her now than Bonnie and Meredith especially because she didn't leave the house very often and her friends were taking care of the last arrangements before they headed to college. Elena had decided to postpone the college thing and she was the only one of them that wouldn't be heading anywhere in a few weeks.

Being away from the girls led her to spend most of her time alone or with Damon. And she really liked the time they spent together. He was always up to anything and though the first times she asked him to do something any of her besties would do he had asked something in exchange – which she made sure to reject – lately he just seemed to enjoy doing foolish things with her as much as she did.

They played cards, board games, prepared and ate meals together, watched movies and even ventured into the karaoke she had brought from her house. His impersonation of Shakira's Hips Don't Lie had been one of the most amusing things she had ever seen in her life. He had folded his shirt exposuring his stomach and wore a pair of boxers while he imitated the Colombian hips moves. Though someone would think that it'd be sexy or cross the lines of friendship, it had been anything but fun. He had surely overdone everything, faces, moves, singing and stopped many times laughing. Elena cracked up. She had tears rolling down her face and her stomach hurt. In the end he just fell over the couch and laughed a lot himself.

The memory of that day seemed to have made Elena forget why she was remembering of the moments she spent with Damon in the first place and a small but true smile showed on her face as she kept folding her clothes. Thoughts of losing the brothers were already gone.

"Elena, now that would be stupid" Damon said not believing that she actually decided to leave them over a baby that she hadn't know for longer than a couple of hours. Damn women and their ovaries, he thought.

"Why, didn't we just agree a few moments ago that it isn't Katherine's style to just go on a spree? I still think that Meredith is her next victim. Unless you have some information about Isobel's father I guess I don't quite fit in the grandfather's tip and so I'm safe until she attacks again" she reasoned as she continued to collect her clothes.

"We don't even know if Katherine is acting alone or if she's just a tool in a bigger plan" Damon suggested but Elena didn't even care to answer and kept getting her stuff. It really annoyed her that for most of the discussion Stefan just stood there, quiet, saying nothing. She knew he cared about her leaving but he seemed to care more about getting rid of the baby that slept quietly in her bed.

"Damon, the baby is clearly here for me. All the events that happened this morning happened for a reason, they weren't random. How do you explain that with your inhuman speed you couldn't track the person who had left a few minutes before you went searching? The note is clear, 'he belongs here, with you' and that has to be me as clearly both you and Stefan don't think he really belongs to any of you" she turned and looked at him as she explained. "And I know the baby would be a burden for you, especially because it's one more human, with very delectable blood in the house, so I won't cause you any trouble because of something that's my problem" she concluded and he could see that she wouldn't budge on her decision.

"But you're my problem, Elena…" Damon's voice was almost a whisper as he softly told her "Our problem, ours to take care of and if that includes a baby, so let it be" his voice became annoyed and he left the room before she or Stefan had time to say anything.

"We need to figure out who let him here. Are you sure there was nothing else in the basket?" she asked Stefan who still stood there quietly much to her annoyance.

"His birth certificate is there too" Stefan simply said and Elena was shocked that he had decided just now to give that important piece of information for her.

"Why didn't you tell me? If we have his birth certificate we could try and track his parents" Elena showed how it bothered her that he still kept things from her, even the ones that she'd easily find out.

"He doesn't have a father and his mother was found dead this morning. OD" Stefan told her and she looked shocked that he knew this much and still just agreed to get rid of the little boy.

"How do you know it?" she murmured trying to hold back her anger. She was getting tired of everything that Stefan kept from her.

"Before you called me to go to Bonnie's, I checked the whole basket and found the certificate under the blanket. I saw there was no father's name and googled the mother's name. She lived on a shelter in a neighbor city and her body was found around six in the morning. The article on internet didn't mention any missing baby though"

"How can you be sure that it was indeed his mother? There are a lot of people with the same names. If she lived in a shelter people there would probably know she had a child and would notice it was missing" the whole story just got worse and worse.

"I don't think we'll find a lot of Valentina Isadora's around, especially not in two cities that together won't have thirty thousand inhabitants" he reasoned and his features didn't change. When did his expressionless face start bothering Elena that much? Stefan had always looked tortured and brooding and rarely showed different emotions in his face. It had been that way since she had been crazily in love with him. But why was she using past tense? Wasn't she madly in love with him anymore?

The couple was still in deep thought, on opposite sides of the room, Elena sat on the bed and Stefan near the door, when Damon entered the bedroom again, not really noticing the thick atmosphere.

"Hey, look what Uncle Damon found. Someone's birth certificate. Now we can go track the bug's parents and ask them why they decided that the very experienced eighteen-year old Elena Gilbert should take care of" his voice was cheerful but still sarcastic as he stopped and read the document in his hands "Sir Jacob Dam…" his voice soon faded and the smirk on his face was replaced by a frown.

"What?" Elena looked concerned to Damon who seemed to be in his usual Damon-mood and then suddenly remembered her of her boyfriend.

"The baby's name is Jacob Damon. Jacob Damon Pierce"

"What?" Elena gasped. It was just too much coincidence.

"How do you know it, little brother?" Damon was still coping with the shock. He had decided to take care of the baby things and maybe surprise Elena with something that would make her a little happier in a day that couldn't have started worst, baby included. While he took everything from the huge basket he found the birth certificate. He didn't actually read anything but the first name and flew upstairs to share his find.

"I saw the birth certificate when you left me here. His mom is dead though and as you may notice there isn't any name in the father's field" Stefan informed Damon who looked back at the paper and confirmed what the younger Salvatore had said.

"Stefan also founded out that his mother overdosed. Do you think she could be related to Katherine? It's just too much coincidence that the baby has your name and her last name" Elena was fidgeting with her hands. Was the baby part of Katherine's sick plans? She looked up at the little angel that still slept and couldn't believe that he could be somehow related to the evil woman. He looked so peaceful and calling him angel was only making justice to his angelic looks.

"What else did you find in your in little research, little brother?" Damon was pissed with him but he wouldn't let it show in front of Elena. She had already had enough for a whole week. Her pseudo-friend was dead and one of her best friends seemed to be next victim and apparently there was nothing they could do about it. Fighting with his brother wouldn't add anything to her life now.

"Nothing. Elena had called me just when I finally tracked his mother and I left"

"You do whip him, Elena" Damon smirked leaving the room briefly before coming back with his laptop.

"So Miss Valentina Isadora Fierce was born in Italy, such a coincidence. I'm guessing one of her parents aren't Italian as Pierce is definitely not Italian while Valentina and Isadora are but this information doesn't seem relevant in the article but they do mention that she had all her documents, including her passport where they found her body" Damon opened a couple of articles that mentioned the woman.

"So maybe we'll find out her parents name and try to see if they're somewhat related to Katherine. I also want to check if anyone in the shelter knew about Jacob and why they didn't tell anything to the cops when they removed his mother's body" Elena was already standing, her purse hanging on her shoulder.

"I'll drive you to Falls Church" he informed Elena even before she asked "Stefan, you're still designated as the Jo in the family. Make sure little Damon feeds and don't let him dirty. We, Damon's are very careful with our looks. We have ladies to impress and charm after all" he winked to his brother and Elena smiled softly. Poor Stefan, he was going to listen for the rest of his life about how the baby is also a Damon.


"Do you actually think that the baby could be related to Katherine and somehow named after you?" Elena asked curious as Damon drove them to the nearby city. He never answered her in the house.

"An homage? I don't think so though if I had a kid I'd totally name him after me" he smirked cockily looking at her and then back at the street.

Elena rolled her eyes; of course Damon would name his kid after him. But wait; did he just consider the hypothesis of having a kid at all? "Would you want?" she asked softly

"Want what, Kitten?" he looked at her again. He got the change in her voice and he was always comfortable around sweet Elena. It balanced his acid personality.

"To have a kid someday" she looked at him in a way she always did when she wanted him to open up. The few times when he had shared bits with her were when she held the endearing gaze that he seemed to have trouble resisting.

"Vampire, remember? Procreation not among what eternity holds for us. But wait, I might die in a few days, months or years, not much for forever, huh?" he tried to slid but he knew she wouldn't give up that easily, even if his eminent death let her uneasy. She was fierce.

"But as a human, did you think about having kids someday?"

"That was a long time ago, totally irrelevant" he kept his eyes fixed in the road they were now entering.

"It may be irrelevant now that you can't have it but this is definitely something I want to know, Damon. I always respect your boundaries and I see pretty well all the signs you send when you don't want to talk but as you just pointed out, the answer is irrelevant. It won't change what I think of you or reveal your real self that for some reasons you hide with so much effort" she was a little bit frustrated that he tried to evade even the simple questions.

"I wanted a life with Katherine, Elena, with everything that comes in the package. Marriage, a house in a small city or in the suburbs and dozens of kids running in the backyard. Satisfied now?" his tone was harsh. He hated remembering of what he had dreamed as a human, especially things related to Katherine.

"You really loved her, didn't you?"

"Yes and that's an experience that I never plan to repeat again" his grip in the steering wheel and the car's speed increased letting her know he wouldn't say another word for the rest of the trip.


AN: So Damon couldn't let Elena leave and he preferred to keep the baby around and actually help her rather than let her move out.

Also we get to know the baby's name. What do you think? Is he somehow related to Katherine? Maybe to Damon?

thanks to shadylady21 and XxxmusicluverxxX for the reviews.

Keep them coming

Babi